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NPR Reporter's Equipment

Flawn Williams has been an engineer at National Public Radio for 25 years and has traveled the globe recording audio for NPR's newsmagazines and cultural programs. He has also been the Technical Advisor on four Next Generation Radio projects. Below, he answers an e-mail from someone who hopes someday to report for radio. He wanted to know what equipment to buy and what does NPR use.
"NPR reporters use a variety of equipment. There is no "industry standard" at this point. We have reporters using at least five different models of MiniDisc recorders, two or three DAT models, and an assortment of older cassette decks. And we use all these things in the context of having a maintenance staff in-house, so you need to make decisions based on your access to warranty repair and maintenance services.

Cultivating a relationship with a vendor, ideally one in your geographical area but alternately a good national vendor, is the safest possible course. We don't endorse any particular vendors, but a few that are worth checking with include Bradley Broadcast Sales, Broadcast Supply West, Klay Anderson Audio, Full Compass Systems, and Sweetwater Sound. You can also find vendors' ads in publications like Radio World and BE Radio.

No matter which type of recorder you decide to use, there are a range of accessories you'll need in order to cover a reporter's needs. The first and foremost is a quality microphone; the best all-round reporter's mike is a handheld dynamic omnidirectional mike such as the Electro/Voice RE50 N/D or 635 N/D, the Beyer M58, the Shure SM62, etc. Once you've mastered the use of that kind of mike, many reporters like to work with handheld short shotgun directional mikes like the AudioTechnica AT835b or the Sennheiser K6 series.

Our reporters typically don't work with mixers in the field. They record individual mikes and then edit and combine those elements in post production.

Beyond that, here are things you should not leave home without:

Extra Tape/Media
Take twice as much as you think you'll need. Cassettes, DATs, and MiniDiscs are all pretty lightweight and compact. They're also more or less hard to find out in the field, and besides, going looking for them at stores would waste valuable reporting time. And the day that you take only what you know you'll need, is the day that the first tape you unwrap in the field will be defective. Thus saith the gospel according to Murphy...

Extra Batteries
It's hard to predict how much battery time you'll need in the field, and it's also hard to guarantee the performance of individual batteries. So make sure you have some spare capacity. Remember particularly that in extremely cold weather battery life may be reduced by 60 to 80%.

AC cable
If you're recording an interview in a stationary setting, you can save your batteries (perhaps even recharge them too!) if there's a wall outlet handy and you've brought along the power cable or power adapter for your recorder. Be sure to monitor the recording if you do this, though: in rare circumstances plugging into AC power may create a hum or buzz in your recording.

Headphones
The best way to check the quality of your recordings. Make sure you have the right plug type to connect to your recorder.

Shoulder Strap, Carrying Case or Equipment Bag
It's best to protect your gear by carrying it in a bag or case. This also keeps the recorder out of sight where it's less likely to invite questions and curious fingers. But if you don't want to do that, a shoulder strap can keep the recorder close at hand when you're on the move.

Adapters and Cables for Special Circumstances
These can include extension cables for when your recorder needs to be farther away from your microphone; a podium clamp or desk stand for the mike; adapter cables to connect your recorder to another recorder, or to the telephone for filing from the field.

NPR issues its reporters a Reporter Kit. Currently most reporters are using MiniDisc recorders of various makes and models, but many still use DAT, some still use analog cassette, and a few are experimenting with newer solid state flash memory recorders.

Reporter Kit

  • Recorder
  • A/C Power Pack for recorder
  • Microphone
  • Wind Screen for mic
  • Cable, Mic 4' (XLR female to appropriate input connector for recorder)
  • Cable, XLR-M to XLR-F 20'
  • Headphones
  • Small Folding Mic Stand
  • 6' Goose Neck
  • Rowi Clamp
  • Mic Clip (attaches mic to stand)
  • Cable, Mini to Alligator Clips (for phone feeds)
  • Cable, Mini to Mini (for dubbing from another recorder)
  • Blank Media
  • Carrying Bag

Reporter Kit, DAT

  • DAT Recorder, Sony TCD-D7 or D8
  • External Battery Pack for DAT recorder (holds 4 alkaline D cells)
  • A/C Power Pack for DAT recorder
  • Microphone
  • Wind Screen for mic
  • Cable, Mic 4' (see note 1 below)
  • Cable, XLR-M to XLR-F 20'
  • Cable, Line input 4' (see note 2 below)
  • Headphones
  • Small Folding Mic Stand
  • 6' Goose Neck
  • Rowi Clamp
  • Mic Clip (attaches mic to stand)
  • Cable, Stereo Mini to Mini (for dubbing from another recorder)
  • Blank DAT Tapes
  • Carrying Bag
note 1: Custom Mic Cable unbalances and splits the mono signal from the mike, and feeds it to both channels; also attenuates the right channel -10db below the left

note 2: Custom Line Input Cable, from +4 dBm source, attenuates the feed to the DAT's left channel -10db and the right -20db"
If you have further questions about buying audio equipment for radio reporting or recording, send us an e-mail. Our address is: nextgenerationradio@npr.org